Americruise 2007 - Driving 'Em Crazy - Expanded For Web

1/57Americruise is about driving your car and having fun. Steve and Karin Law and their kids brought the family '57 to Lincoln and had a great time throwing it through the cones.

At last count, there were a whole lot of car shows in the United States. Americruise is Rod & Custom's car show, and for more than 15 years we've tried to make it more fun than all those other shows by promoting it as a place for driving your rods and customs, instead of just displaying them. Somebody else can host Ameripark; we like Americruise.

In addition to actually driving to Lincoln, Nebraska, on tours from California and Texas, we set up some old-fashioned driving challenges at State Fair Park-the kind of fun that was part of almost every hot rod show 30 or 35 years ago. The Go & Whoa course, as well as the twisty handling course, gave Americruisers a chance to push their cars and trucks a little bit, without really risking anything-except maybe their egos.

These driving events were also part of our Rod of the Year and Custom of the Year competitions. The R&C staff picked five pre-'49 rods and five '49-64 customs from the judging area, based on our subjective opinions, and invited them to shoot it out in the timed driving events, followed by testdrives through the streets of Lincoln. Our foolproof points system determined the RotY and CotY winners, identified elsewhere in this issue.

Of course, in addition to the driving events, there were plenty of other activities at Americruise. There was a vendors midway, Participant Choice judging, the ever-popular Miss Americruise contest, plenty of roads for cruising, and plenty of shade for parking and relaxing (yeah, that's allowed).

We'll be taking Americruise to a new location in 2008, and we'll tell you where as soon as we figure that out. Wherever it is, it'll be cool, fun, and all about the driving.